Confession
by Dakk Tribal
Summary: Ever since their so-called Christmas 'date', both Orihime and Ichigo are still not sure if they should start dating. Main problem is, neither wants to be the one to ask the other out of sheer nervousness. That is, until Ichigo steps up to the plate. / Total fluff for IchiHime fans, and this is the third part of the collection of Ichihime stories I have.


Sitting on his sofa in his house, the orange haired teen was thinking about what he was going to do for the day. It had been three weeks since the Christmas snack that Orihime had made for him, and ever since then Ichigo had been seeing her more and more with each passing day. During school, the two often sat at the same table much to the surprise of their friends, but to the delight of Orihime's best friend Tatsuki. There were many that believed that the two were an item, but neither Ichigo nor Orihime were talking. Hell, Ichigo didn't know if they could be officially boyfriend and girlfriend, and the guy who knew nothing about girls wasn't able to ask.

It had started with a nightmare that Orihime had a while ago. One that was too gruesome to recall, it had scared the crap out of Orihime to the point that it had caused a spiritual pressure disruption, and it was just by chance that Ichigo was in the area. He calmed her down, and in the end he had stayed the night at her house to keep her company. Then, soon after that seemingly innocent occasion, the girl had made him some Christmas cookies in return for the act of kindness. Ichigo was really surprised he had not gotten sick knowing Orihime's rather poor cooking skills. _Guess even miracles happen from time time…_ Ichigo thought.

Just then something landed on the top of his head, a small yellow stuffed animal, "Hey Ichigo!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes and grabbed the little toy-like creature with one hand and pulled him off his head, "the hell do you want Kon?"

Kon flailed about as Ichigo held him in the air upside down, "Hey you idiot! Put me down!"

"Answer the damn question first."

Kon stopped moving, "I don't like seeing you looking so serious. You look so stupid—"

Ichigo promptly dropped Kon and he landed hard on his head, "I don't have time for you right now."

Kon gathered himself and stood at Ichigo's feet, "Well, you seem to have all the time in the world for your friends, especially when it comes to MY goddess—"

This time Ichigo planted his foot on Kon, "Shut up cotton ball." Kon had always referred to Orihime as a goddess, and he worshipped her like a religious zealot, and Ichigo found it really irritating when Kon constantly tried to get the girl to hug him. "All you want from her is to feel her up." _And like hell I'd allow that even if she were my girlfriend…_

As Ichigo continued to think, Kon got out of his new predicament, "Dammit! You two should have been together ages ago! And listen man, she was a damsel in distress that one night and you came to her like a knight in shining armor!" Then Kon crossed his arms over his chest to rethink himself, "Okay, that was too good for you, but you know what I mean right?"

Oh how Ichigo hated when Kon was right.

"Okay pumpkin head, now that you two like each other, why don't you go and hook up?"

"You're asking for a lot. Surely you know what kind of trouble that would bring—"

Kon hopped onto Ichigo's lap, smacking him upside the head, "You are such a dolt! Trouble is always a part of the fun! Besides, if you lose her you'll never forgive yourself!"

Ichigo glared at Kon, and it scared him to the point where he went mute. Ichigo stood up and walked to his front door, making a big sigh before he walked out the door.

Kon regained his composure, and thought up a plan, "I'll have to do something myself…"

The Saturday morning was giving way to noon, and Orihime had just finished her shower. Feeling great after spending nearly an hour in warm water, she was now sitting on her bed slowly brushing her hair while humming a song.

Since school didn't happen on Saturday Orihime thought about what she was going to do today. Possibly relax at home, or go see what Tatsuki was doing, or the thing she wanted to do the most.

_Of course, I'd like to go see Ichigo, but I've seen him every day at school...but...it's never enough it seems_, Orihime thought setting her brush on her bedside table. She took a big breath and fell back on her bed, looking up at the ceiling with various thoughts going on in her head. Besides the over active imagination she had, thoughts of her friend came in, the smile he gave each morning they met in class, the thoughts of sitting together during lunch, and then hearing the rumors.

"Or yeah...the rumors," Orihime said, closing her eyes. Various students had been spreading gossip ever since the holidays had ended two or three weeks ago. Gossip that spread like wildfire but was kept under wraps, rumors that said of how Ichigo and Orihime were dating, of them spending time together on Christmas Eve, etc. Orihime had heard them thanks to her close friend Tatsuki, and even though she ignored them, Orihime had not told Tatsuki that there was some truth to what was going on. "I did make a snack for Ichigo and he said he had loved them, but I also left out how we had kissed under the mistletoe..." From what she had seen it seemed like Ichigo appeared to ignore the rumors as well, but this was just speculation as Orihime had thought it'd be better to avoid talking with him alone. She didn't want to add fuel to the fire, even though she had considered the kiss, as much as she had enjoyed it, to be a consequence of an age old tradition. Still, she had to wonder, did Ichigo enjoy it?

"Well, if I can ask him that, it'd take a miracle-"

Orihime heard her cell phone ringing on her bedside table, a pop song ringtone playing loudly, and she sat up on her elbows. The ringtones in her phone were all assigned to certain friends, that way she'd know who was calling without even having to pick up her phone.

And this ringtone belonged to Ichigo.

Without missing a beat, Orihime hopped off her bed and answered her phone, "H-Hello?"

"Hey, Orihime. How are you?"

It wasn't too often that Ichigo called her, so this was a startling surprise for Orihime as she tried to keep herself calm. ""I'm uh doing just fine, just cleaning up my room..."

"Oh well, I was just wondering if you were doing anything today. I'm not."

Orihime stopped breathing for a few seconds, realizing how perfect this could be, "Um, no, I don't have anything planned..." She was trying to find the words to ask him to come over to her house, but it was proving harder than she had thought it would be. It was just so sudden!

"Well, you want me to come over?"

Orihime's heart started pumping really really fast. The heat rushed to her face with the intensity of an inferno. "YES!" Realizing that her excitement went and got the better of her, and because of that she had shouted into the phone, Orihime tried to regain herself, "Sorry Ichigo, yeah, come on over."

"Alright, just to let you know I am right outside your house."

The girl's heart stopped, "W-What...?" She walked on over to her bedroom window and peeked past the curtains. Sure enough, there was Ichigo standing on the sidewalk on the other side of the street with his cell phone in his hand. Ducking out of sight, Orihime sank to the floor since her legs had practically had given out on her. "I'm not even dressed yet..." She gasped, realizing she had just spoke into the phone. She hoped that Ichigo had not heard that-

"What do you mean you're not dressed yet?"

He did hear her!

"Nothing! I'll come to the door when I get some clothes on-" _Oh no!_ "See you in a few!" She hung up, almost feeling the urge to throw her phone across the room to let out her frustration. She then took a deep a big breath and stood up, "Enough of this! I'm not gonna keep him waiting, I better find something to wear, but what-" The proverbial light bulb went off in the girl's head, and she promptly dropped the towel and ran to her closet.

Ichigo put his phone in his pocket, his cheeks a bit red. He knew that Orihime was a bit of a ditz, but stumbling over her own words was not too often a problem for her. _She said she had to get dressed, damn, she must have taken a bath and I called at the wrong moment. What a way to start a day together._ Then Ichigo's mind started to wander. Then he started to feel weird, with images of Orihime in nothing but a towel entering his mind-

He shook his head frantically, "Damn it! Stop that!"

"Hey, Ichigo!"

He looked across the street and saw Orihime standing in her doorway, wearing a green pastel dress that was knee-length. It also had a tube top, showing off Orihime's shoulders, making her more alluring than ever.

Ichigo ran to her, "Sorry to come on over on such short notice." He was being apologetic, since he did call her less than ten minutes ago just outside her house. _No way will I tell her it's because of Kon that I came over._ He didn't want to have that stuffed animal getting the upper hand on him.

Orihime shook her head and smiled, "That's alright, I was going to visit you later anyway. So, this worked out pleasantly don't you think?"

_Don't ask her about earlier though, might make this even weirder for her_, Ichigo thought, "Well, yeah, it did. Anyway, there's something I need to talk to you about."

Orihime's smile faded a bit, but she kept her happy demeanor up as best she could. "Talk? Sure, come on in." The two went from the door to the living room, and Ichigo went and sat down on the couch. He couldn't help but feel the deja vu overcome him, reminding him of the night she had those nightmares.

Orihime went and sat down in the recliner on the left side of the sofa, "So, what did you want to talk about?" She had thought of getting drinks but something in her mind told her to listen to what Ichigo wanted to say first. She was also curious of what he had to say.

Ichigo took a deep breath, "Alright. Um, so, you doing okay?"

Orihime smiled, "Yeah, no nightmares since that night," she curled a few strands of her hair with her fingers in nervousness.

_That's good_,' Ichigo thought with relief, but he knew he had to get down to why he was there. "I'm gonna try and be straight to the point, Orihime."

The girl stood up, feeling electricity go through her legs. "Um, okay..."

Ichigo stood up as well, "Surely you've heard the rumors, right?"

_So, he has heard of them..._ "About us? Yes, I have."

"Okay then, I just want to know what we should do about them."

Orihime sighed, "Well, rumors tend to get worse unless they are addressed early enough...but what options do we have?"

Ichigo put his hands in his pant pockets, "Well, we can simply tell everyone that they are not true. Seems like the easiest option to tell everyone that there is nothing going on between us."

Orihime turned her head away from him, hiding her worry and silently hoping that he was not serious about that. She wanted to be with Ichigo really badly. She wanted to call him her first boyfriend, her first one ever. But if he didn't think it was a good idea yet-

"But...if I were to say that, I'd be lying to myself, and to you, Orihime."

She stopped and looked at him again, her eyes widening. She saw his cheeks were red, and from the way he was avoiding eye-contact with her meant that he was having some sort of trouble getting the words out.

"You see, Orihime..." _Dammit, just spit it out already! You're building unnecessary tension!_ "I've been trying to get the words out for some time now...but I really like you."

Orihime felt her heart soar to her throat after hearing those words, but she felt like he had more to say and kept herself quiet.

"I mean, there were the times when I saved you from the Hollows and the Arrancars, but I realized my feelings for you soon after you had those nightmares. Even more so after our Christmas snack together." This was proving harder with each breath, but Ichigo was determined to tell her what he had to say. His gaze returned to her face, "So...I just wanted to ask you if...um..." He could see that Orihime was listening intently and her eyes were glued to his. "Can I be your boyfriend?"

Her heart burst with happiness. That was all that could be said about how Orihime was feeling right now. Tears welled up in her eyes and Orihime fell to the floor on her knees, putting her face in her hands.

At first, Ichigo thought he had done something wrong and rushed to Orihime, "You alright?"

Ichigo could easily hear her sobbing, but his fears were gone when he saw her look up at his face. Despite the tears falling from her eyes and down her cheeks, despite the fact that she was crying, she was still smiling. "You see, Ichigo, I've always wanted to hear you ask that to me."

Ichigo's expression was one of surprise.

Orihime began to wipe the tears from her cheeks, "I've always loved you. I was just too shy to say it out loud." Her smile grew, and Ichigo helped her to her feet, "I also hoped that, one day maybe, you'd say the same thing to me."

Ichigo put his right hand behind Orihime's head and pulled her close to him, her head resting against his shoulder, "Well, now I feel really silly for not seeing how you felt about me. I'm sorry I never noticed it before now."

He felt Orihime put her arms around his waist, holding him tightly, "That's alright. Tatsuki always said you were slow to certain things."

Ichigo chuckled, "Guess I'll have to thank her for that." He then put his arms around Orihime's waist, holding her as if she were the most precious person on the planet.

"Oh hell yeah! Group hug!" Kon appeared standing on the top of the recliner with his paws in the air with glee. Orihime pulled her head from Ichigo and was shocked to see Kon.

Ichigo, however, was just about to blow a gasket, "What in the hell are you doing here?!"

"I'm just here to make sure you didn't screw up. And you passed with flying colors-hey, why are you looking at me like that?"

Orihime was now standing next to Ichigo, who didn't look too happy to see the little animal there. "You're so lucky I can't summon my sword right now. But not so lucky since I can still use my fists."

Poor Kon looked as if he had seen a ghost.

And that was how the relationship between Ichigo and Orihime truly started.


End file.
